Glaucoma/Ocular Migraines?!
Question: My optometrist screens me for glaucoma every year because she says that my optic nerves are swollen. She did laser surgery on my retina because of a tear. I had an ocular migraine the other day for the first time and am freaking out about it - I was almost totally blind for 30 minutes. Do you think there is a link between the retinal surgery, swollen optic nerves and ocular migraines? I have an appt. with opt. but not til Mon.
Answers: My optometrist screens me for glaucoma every year because she says that my optic nerves are swollen. She did laser surgery on my retina because of a tear. I had an ocular migraine the other day for the first time and am freaking out about it - I was almost totally blind for 30 minutes. Do you think there is a link between the retinal surgery, swollen optic nerves and ocular migraines? I have an appt. with opt. but not til Mon.
No association at all, physically.
Migraines, visual or otherwise, are a brain condition, and nothing to do with the eyes, despite the visual symptoms.
These are arising in the visual areas of the brain and *being interpreted" as blind spots and lights floating in space.
The eyes are sending normal information to the brain: it's there it's getting mis-handled.
Very rarely, the symptoms of an early retinal detachment have been mistaken for, and passed off as, a visual migraine.
With your history of retinal problems, and no previous history of visual migraine it is worth a check, just as a precaution, to eliminate that and other outside possibilities, such as a transient ischaemic attack.
(It's exceedingly unlikely if you had any other migraine symptoms apart from the purely visual: pins and needles in the fingers or face, strange smells etc.)
But yes, the visual symptoms of a migraine can be seriously disturbing when they are a new thing.
For some of us "An old enemy is almost as good as a friend."
It may be nasty, but it threatens no nasty surprises.